HTC Flyer tablet hits the shelves, Scribe technology and everything

HTC sent us a reminder that its first Android tablet, the HTC Flyer, is entering the retail space across Europe today. To be exact, it is available in the following countries: UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. Pricing is rather high at EUR649 (~$920) for the 3G 32GB version or EUR499 (~$710) for the Wi-Fi only 16GB model. On its site, HTC lists the shops where you can order the Flyer.

The slate features a somewhat unique feature called Scribe, for writing or doodling with a capacitive stylus (now called Magic Pen) on the screen. In Europe, the stylus will be bundled with the tablet. Besides HTC Sense UI for tablets, the HTC Scribe technology "introduces a wave of integrated digital ink innovations that make it easy and natural to take notes, sign contracts, draw pictures, or even write on a web page or photo. Note-taking has been made smart for the first time by synchronising natural onscreen handwriting with Timemark audio recording. Tapping on a word in your notes instantly takes you to that exact place in time in the audio recording, ensuring you can place your notes in the context of any conversation or meeting.

Notes are also integrated with the calendar so when there is an appointment reminder you are automatically prompted with an opportunity to begin a new note or in the case of recurring meetings, to continue where the last meeting left off.  In an industry first, the HTC Flyer tablet also features built-in synchronization with Evernote, the world-leading notes application and service." This makes it quite a versatile tool for note taking or for the artist in you, and think about all those trees that can be saved.

The HTC Flyer is the first mobile device that ships with a 1.5GHz processor, albeit of the single-core variant. It features Qualcomm's Snapdragon chipset and 1GB of RAM, a 7" display with 1024x600 pixels of resolution, 5MP rear and 1.3MP front camera. Despite its solid HTC-style looks, the Flyer weighs 14.6 ounces (415 grams), together with the battery. Unlike all recent Android tablets, the Flyer runs not-Tablet-optimized Gingerbread instead of Honeycomb. HTC has mentioned an update will come, but yet there is no solid information when.

source: HTC